Willits Bypass: CalTrans dug a ditch through a marked archaological site in June

CalTrans notified tribal representatives its contractors used a mechanical trencher through a marked archaeological site, installed a water pipe and then covered it on June 12.

Priscilla Hunter, tribal representative of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, was apprised of the incident after it occurred. Tim Keefe, the CalTrans District 1 Heritage Resource Coordinator, contacted Hunter and apologized for the incident, according to Hunter.

Keefe, who is stationed in Eureka, apparently authorized the contractor over the phone to fill the ditch and did not contact a tribal monitor assigned to the project or a tribal representative to inspect the site prior to covering up the piping.

CalTrans spokesman Phil Frisbie says Keefe was in contact with a CalTrans contracted archaeologist who was on site.

CalTrans has confirmed the area in question was previously identified as a sensitive area due to the presence of several native artifacts and had been staked prior to the ditch digging operation. The stakes are believed to have been knocked down by cattle grazing in the area. The water pipe was being installed along Hearst Willits Road to supply drinking water to cattle being grazed as part of the project's mitigation activities.

Frisbie says CalTrans has revised the procedures for securing such sensitive sites in the future and will require actual fencing.

Hunter was outraged by the failure of CalTrans to properly secure the site and then for proceeding to backfill the site without consulting with tribal leaders. "How can you monitor the situation from Eureka," she asked. "We were not informed of the trenching near the site."

The trenching was not very deep and did not turn up any artifacts, according to Frisbie. The sensitive area had been identified during a preliminary inspection of the area and was staked off. CalTrans then determined the damage had already been done and decided to back fill over the pipe.

Earlier this month the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians sent a letter to the US Army Corps of Engineers asking whether CalTrans had properly notified them of issues with the destruction in 2013 of a culturally significant site. The letter also expressed concerns about a number of sites, identified before construction began and a number of sites discovered during the course of construction. Of further interest is the large number of known cultural sites located within the mitigation properties.

The tribe also expressed concern about CalTrans had encountered several culturally significant sites since December 2011 which were either "in the direct line of impact" or in the "area of potential impact" while failing to notify either the tribe or the Corps of Engineers. Tribal Chairperson Michael Hunter was concerned that the CalTrans attorney accompanying the tribal representatives on a May on-site review had apprised him the Corps only had jurisdiction over a small portion of the Willits bypass. The tribe included in the letter to the Corps, a listing of 14 separate archaeological sites within the Corps' jurisdictional wetlands, listed in the CalTrans mitigation and management plan.

In June tribal council passed a resolution calling for CalTrans to stop construction and to downsize the northern interchange. The resolution referred to CalTrans' "grossly negligent and illegal destruction of our ancestral village site CA MEN 3571."